On Finding a Healthy Rhythm of Work and Rest

Last week, I was pleased to spend a few days at the beautiful Barnabas Family Ministries retreat centre on Keats Island. I loved the warm hospitality and accommodations in the Carriage House (on the left below), and the excellent farm-fresh meals served in the Lamplighter Cottage (on the right).

Barnabas Family Ministries

It was the perfect setting to be on retreat with Mennonite Foundation–now called Abundance Canada— for me to lead three sessions on a healthy rhythm of work and rest. In between, while they had their own additional policy and training sessions, I was free to explore, write, and regain some rhythm of my own too.

Session #1
Work and Rest: precarious balance or healthy rhythm?

In our first session, I introduced the theme of healthy work and rest:

Matthew 11:28-30 – Jesus’ words embrace both work (take my yoke upon you) and rest (come to me and I will give you rest).

Romans 12:1(NRSV) – urges us to offer all of our lives to God, both our rest and our work:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.

In my remarks, I noted that many Canadians do not take all of the rest/vacation that they are entitled to take (Nay-cation? Why Canadians are leaving vacation days on the table), and I quoted a portion of an address on The Power of the Pause by Maria Shriver; we didn’t take the time to watch it together, but here it is:

Session #2
God’s Gift of Work and Rest

God engages in both work and rest. This was illustrated in a responsive reading of the text, with one voice reading the parts where God is creating and another voice reading the pauses between the days and at the end of the week.

Work and rest are gifts from God.

Work is not something to endure between weekends, it’s not a punishment, although maybe we sometimes think of it that way or organize it that way. Work plays a key role before the fall. Work can be fun and enjoyable.

Work is creative and life-affirming. “Even when I was standing in sewage cleaning up after the disaster in New Orleans, I felt good about it,” said one. Although the work itself was not pleasant, he remembers thinking “there’s nowhere else I would rather be.” It was work that he had chosen and that was making a difference.

Work is purposeful. It can be organized, there’s a progression, it has an impact beyond the immediate effects. Things continue to happen even while God rests.

Work is measurable – there is a visible difference and impact. Work results in good things.

As God’s image-bearers, we represent God, reflect God’s image in our rhythm of work and rest. There is a limit to work – God paused, God completed the work.

Rest is the evidence of having worked, a reward for work, maybe more rewarding after work.

God is intentional about stepping back and seeing the good. At other times in Scripture, God steps back and sees the good (words of blessing) and not-so-good (words of judgement).

8 thoughts on “On Finding a Healthy Rhythm of Work and Rest”

Hi Judy – we also talked about barriers to having a healthy rhythm, and the first item on the list was “everything”! Our own internal wiring of wanting to enjoy and do it all, the responsibilities of life, expectations of others, and “everything” can take away from a healthy rhythm. For me, one of the key ideas from the Genesis text and our discussion is the relational/community aspect–I hear a lot of talk these days about “self-care” but a healthy rhythm of work and rest is not only about the individual. We also need to be asking what is a healthy rhythm as a community–for family, for the work place, for schools, for all of us.

Thank you for sending me digging through my quote book. There is a third idea beyond work and rest, which you point out in your book, “Sacred Pauses:” having fun. Here are two of the quotes that have spoken loudly to me about the importance of fun and play in a balanced life:

We have to let “go of exhaustion as a status-symbol and productivity as self-worth.” – Brené Brown, “The Gifts of Imperfection”

The opposite of play is not work—the opposite of play is depression. – Stuart Brown, “Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul”

Yes, we are “wired” for work and productivity, but at the expense of our ability to be truly creative and engaged. In my experience, these appear only when there are opportunities not only for work and rest, but for play.
Kathleen

Thanks, Kathleen, I love your quotes! In my draft for the retreat, I actually had “Jesus at work, rest, and play”! When I think about leisurely cooking a meal in the list above, for me that would be a kind of play, somewhere between work and rest. Sometimes writing is a kind of play for me, for other people it might be playing piano or going ice skating, or sitting down to a board game. On this retreat, I think we tended to put play in the rest category, but it’s helpful to think about it more specifically as you point out. Thanks for your comments!

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My name is April Yamasaki, and I share Scripture, stories, and practical examples of acts of faith in everyday life.

How do we pray when we can't find the words and prayer seems impossible? How does Scripture speak into the joys, concerns, changes, and challenges we live every day? What does it mean to act on our faith? These are vital, ongoing questions, and I'm eager to explore them with you.